Petkova, Vanya

2 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Novinar - Bulgaria | 13/07/2011

Fare-dodgers in Sofia are justified

Stinking buses, rattling trams: Sofia's public transport is not worth paying for, writes Wanja Petkowa in the daily Novinar: "I hear fare-dodgers explaining to ticket inspectors time and again that they haven't bought a ticket because they can't imagine where their money is going. In a way they're right, if you consider that conditions on public transport haven't improved for decades. And although when it rains you can still find a place on the bus where it doesn't drip, a journey in the summer heat is just unbearable. For when it's 35 degrees outside public transport becomes a really smelly experience. A couple of questions spring to mind that I'd like to ask the director of Sofia's public transport: When did you last travel by bus, trolleybus or tram? How much would you pay for a journey? How much money was spent last year and what for?"

Winners of Bulgaria's transition hinder European development

After the publishing of aerial images of villas belonging to shady businesspeople and civil servants, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov has called for a thorough stocktaking of the transformation in Bulgaria. The daily Novinar agrees: "It is high time we laid the cards on the table and told the truth about the transformation. We've got to draw a line and ask: have certain people robbed the state? If so, they should answer for it in court. If not, public insinuations about who's stolen what and who's grown rich in office should stop once and for all. What do we get from continually looking back into the past? Wouldn't it be better to face the future? But to do that we have to put our foot down! An end to the transformation! An end to the theft, if it exists! We must stop trying to wriggle out of things and start the European development of Bulgaria."